Another Thing About Parent (PLUS) Loans

cptofthehouse
Thu, 18 Oct 2012 11:27:52 +0000

Plus loans are often granted when other loans are not. Income is not considered so someone who may know full well that there is no way in the world s/he could get, say a $10K unsecured loan, could get one through PLUS if there are not big items on the credit report and not 90 overdue on any reported payments. Credit ratings are not takine into account, either for PLUS, just certain items in the report. You can get a PLUS with an abysmal credit rating, high debt to income ratio and low income. One can argue that this should not be, but for now it is. And colleges present it that way too.

Listing the PLUS as an option is fine, IMO, and so it should be reported because it is a possible option. Listing it as an award is downright misleading, given how confusing all of this is.